Shrimp farming from the world's oceans can no longer safely meet demand. Alternative methods to try to meet the demand have been developed and enhanced. Typically shrimp production comes from outdoor ponds operated throughout the world but predominantly in tropical or warm climates such as Asia and South America. The outdoor farming methods, while productive, face challenges and drawbacks with respect to disease contraction, environmental damage and a continuing need for various chemicals to keep the shrimp alive and enhance growth.
Farming methods have been developed for indoor closed containment providing a controlled and sometimes enhanced shrimp production. While these methods offer some improvements over outdoor farming, there are still drawbacks associated with the methods. For example, many indoor commercial farms still require large spaces and substantial amounts of water while few practice a high level of bio-security.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,298 describes a method and apparatus for intensive rearing of post-larvae shrimp under controlled conditions. The apparatus comprises first and second rearing units containing habitat structures formed from a plurality of stacked substrates, in which the combined total surface area of the second rearing unit is greater than that of the first rearing unit. Shrimp are moved from the first rearing unit to the second rearing unit after a pre-determined period of growth.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,336,498 describes a system and method for super-intensive shrimp production. The system includes a set of at least two raceways having sloped bottoms with either a bottom nadir or apex, with one of the raceways being at least partially stacked on top of the other. Raceways may be different sizes and shrimp may be transferred from raceway to raceway as they increase in size.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2001/0045189 describes a shrimp culture system that comprises one or more horizontal sheet-like dividers that are used to subdivide a water tank into multiple flow zones. Strips or fronds of high surface area material are attached to the dividers to promote the photosynthetic production of oxygen in the flow zones.
This background information is provided for the purpose of making known information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present invention. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the present invention.